


Speed king on the track

by Hypatia_66



Series: An UNCLE Gazetteer [20]
Category: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (TV)
Genre: ABC Challenge, Community: section7mfu, Gen, Italian Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-27 20:58:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15033182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hypatia_66/pseuds/Hypatia_66
Summary: ABC Affair II. Cities A-Z. Prompt: T - TurinA car factory offers possibilities for crime. Illya finds excitement - it has a test track...





	Speed king on the track

Illya’s normal restraint was under pressure. Fiat’s Lingotto Factory had a test track – a veritable race track – on its roof. The possibility of trying it out was so tempting… “When do we leave?” he said.

There had always been a suspicion – some thought it was a joke, others pretty much a fact – that Italy was run, not by an elected government in Rome, but by Fiat in Turin. Its name and its financial clout gave it leverage in the seats of what passed for power but they also made it vulnerable to opportunists.

“The potential is there,” said Waverly, tapping the map with his pipe. “The Lingotto Factory is right next to the rail yards and the river. Cars come down the ramp straight onto the freight transporters for worldwide distribution. It offers enormous possibilities – so much so, that the Chairman has become suspicious that some kind of illicit activity is taking place in the factory and, rather than involve the Italian police, has asked us to come and observe.”

“But it’s a highly-regarded company – surely no-one would be stupid enough to jeopardise its good name?” Napoleon was only mildly interested.

“No-one in the company, I’m sure, but possibly someone using the company’s good name to hide criminal activities.”

oo000oo

The factory was enormous. Its processes had originally come from the Ford production line in Detroit, but if anyone thought a surveillance operation could be carried out easily in this building, they were wrong. In the guise of American businessmen looking for improvements to time and motion in their own factory, they spent several days being shown all over the two parallel buildings, the five-storey office linkways and even the spiral ramps linking each floor. Illya could barely contain himself when they were taken up onto the roof to see the test track. It was huge and banked at each end. They could have filmed Ben Hur up there.

“You want to wait to see some vehicles being tested?” said their guide.

Illya beamed. “Yes,” he said.

“You want to take one round the track, yourself?” said the guide, detecting a hitherto concealed enthusiasm.

“May I?”

Napoleon sighed. Put Illya the speed king and cars together... _with_ a race track…

Illya was permitted to take the wheel of a fast model with one of the company’s test drivers beside him to – Napoleon hoped – keep an eye on him. He watched enviously as Illya took the car at speed down the length of the track and, in complete control, took the banked curve at the end, and returned down the track on the other side, round the other banked end and back, before pulling up beside Napoleon, positively glowing.

He thanked and shook hands with the test driver who took it away at a more sedate speed, and grinned at Napoleon.

“I thought new cars had to be driven gently,” said Napoleon.

“Well… he didn’t seem to mind,” said Illya.

oo000oo

There was nothing untoward going on inside the factory – other than the usual petty misappropriations that happen in even the best run outfits, and they weren’t interested in those. The next possibility was at the point of delivery to the freight wagons.

Down at the trackside they watched as the cars came down the spiral ramps from the test track to be loaded onto the wagons. It was the fastening of the cables that attracted Illya’s attention. He wandered over to watch while Napoleon talked to the section manager.

The workman glanced up and seeing a critical eye upon him, frowned a little. He stood up and took off a thick glove to wipe his brow. “Che succede?” he said.

“Just observing,” said Illya, “don’t mind me. Can I come and see?”

The man shrugged and Illya jumped up onto the wagon. He looked down at the clamps and cables then hunkered down to examine them more closely. He looked up, right into the sun and squinted at the man standing over him. “There is something strange about this cable …” he said. He got no further, the man glanced round and, seeing himself unobserved, kicked Illya in the chest sending him flying off the wagon onto the neighbouring track where he rolled in a crumpled heap across the rail.

Napoleon looked round as another locomotive approached along the other track. There was no sign of Illya and the man he had gone to watch had disappeared. Strange – there weren’t many places he could have got to. He shouted, but the noise the locomotive was making drowned his voice and then the train next to him began to move out with a screech and a rumble. He shouted again. Where was Illya?

When the track cleared, he and the section manager scanned the scene and to their horror spotted a bundle of clothes some distance away on the rails. Napoleon cried, “Illya! No!” The manager ran to stop the next train while Napoleon, white to the lips, ran towards the bundle and leapt down onto the tracks.

Illya lay face down where he had rolled between the rails. “Illya? Illya, are you OK? Illya, wake up!”

There was a groan and Illya raised his head. “Napoleon?” He tried again to rise, “… Help me up.”

oo000oo

He had cuts and bruises from the fall, but was otherwise unhurt – the locomotive had passed harmlessly over him. He refused professional medical attention and sat nursing a headache in the Chairman’s office. “It’s something to do with the cables holding the cars,” he said. “There are large pockets under the mechanism. Room for several packages – I think it must be a drug-running operation.”

The immediate culprits, having been alerted, had probably got away, so the Chairman was chiefly concerned to avoid a public scandal. Illya and Napoleon left him organising a search and putting a stop to the illicit activity at the factory.

"I was hoping to have another go on the test track," said Illya.

"Haven't you had enough excitement for one day? If you want more thrills, we'd better see if Mr Waverly wants us to chase drug smugglers all over Italy."

**Author's Note:**

> Fiat’s Lingotto Factory in Via Nizza, Turin, closed in 1982 and now houses several concerns including a hotel, but the test track is still there on the roof. It appeared in a scene in The Italian job, in 1969.


End file.
